Of course they should. But since when have artist’s been treated fairly by record companies? The record companies sole intrest is to make a profit, which is fine. But if they’re goingto sue consmurs today for copying music, they should sue themselves for all the billions of tapes they sold in the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s. Those tapes had but one purpose and that was to copy albums.
The record companies have been ripping off the recording artists for years so let's go ahead and join in to rip off the recording artists while we are simultaneously ripping off the record companies who have been ripping off all of us for years.
If you don't pay for the music you get off the Internet, nobody gets paid for their creative work. That is not a positive development for creative people. That record companies have been making a fortune off music for years is beside the point. They have been making a fortune off the music because people were buying the products.
I have been writing and recording songs for years. It costs good money to make master recordings and people think they have a right to a free copy of that valuable investment just because some smart guys came up with a way to steal the music quickly and conveniently off the Internet.
Copyrights are valuable and 40% of the GDP of the United States is derived from intellectual property. If it's OK to steal copyrighted material, why not steal patents and trademarks?
Aren't creative people here to serve us, the lazy who can't create a damn thing but demand a right to freely own anything those creative people come up with?
Why are these entertainment companies standing in the way of freeloaders like us who just want to grab some free original music with a couple of mouse clicks?
The money we won't spend on downloading music is more important to us than the money collected by record companies. Right?
We consumers have the moral high ground on this because we should not have to pay for entertainment from greedy entertainment companies who already have plenty of money. We need to keep our money to buy important things like beer and cigarettes.
Of course, our refusing to part with our money to buy music gives us moral superiority over the dirty rotten scoundrels who sell music....doesn't it?